Despite what some folks believe, most pediatricians are very interested in breastfeeding and learning as much as they can to help their families breastfeeding effectively for as long as they wish.

They are not looking to push baby formula or bottles to sabotage a mom’s chances of breastfeeding her baby.

Your pediatrician should give you ongoing support to help you breastfeed effectively.

And they will typically do anything to help the mom breastfeed, as well as make sure the baby is getting enough to eat. At least they will do anything that has some evidence to show that it is effective.

Chiropractic for Breastfeeding Problems

Will they refer their babies to a chiropractor for extra help with breastfeeding?

“Chiropractic manipulation in children who are < age 12 years is considered unproven and not medically necessary as a treatment for any diagnosis as there is insufficient published evidence to assess the safety and/or impact on health outcomes in the pediatric population.”

Chiropractic Spinal Manipulation in Children

Probably not, as there is no real evidence that it would help. Unfortunately, well meaning pediatricians do often refer their patients to lactation consultants who may then recommend further management by a chiropractor.

Why?

“Based on their case studies and the volumes of previous research, these researchers concluded that subluxations and the neurological interference they cause play a major role in Hypolactation. The researchers suggest, “Chiropractic evaluation for subluxations would be a key element in the holistic assessment of the failure to establish milk supply in the post partum patient.””

icpa on Chiropractic Helps New Mothers Produce Milk

Maybe it is because they don’t understand that when chiropractors use the term subluxations, they are not referring to something you can see on an xray, but rather something they think they can feel, and when manipulated, unblocks the flow of energy that prevents your body’s innate ability to heal itself.

“DD Palmer, an American magnetic healer, believed that diseases are often caused by subluxations of the vertebrae, which, in turn, lead to an interruption of nervous impulses; and that the correction of these subluxations allows the body to heal itself. This is still a central tenet of chiropractic.”

Chiropractic care for children: Controversies and issues

Is that why your baby is having trouble breastfeeding? An invisible subluxation is blocking the flow of energy in your body?

I doubled checked my copy of Gray’s Anatomy, and our nervous system and the things it supplies does’t look like this. The gall bladder, for example, is supplied by the vagus nerve (Cranial Nerve X) and the phrenic nerve (cervical nerves 3 to 5) and is not associated with the T4 vertebrae.

What about the “research” chiropractors talk about?

They are case studies, which is basically a chiropractor telling a story (glorified anecdote) about what happened to their patient, without any evidence of why it happened or how it could have happened.

“High-quality evidence supporting effectiveness of spinal manipulation for nonmusculoskeletal concerns is lacking, especially in infants and children, for whom the risks of adverse events may be the highest because of immature stability of the spine.”

AAP on Pediatric Integrative Medicine

The American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Integrative Medicine even warns parents about taking their kids to a chiropractor. And that’s saying something, as they promote some other holistic therapies that aren’t actually all that evidence based.

Craniosacral Therapy for Breastfeeding Problems

What about craniosacral therapy?

Similar to chiropractic, it has to do with has to do with tides and rhythms of cerebrospinal fluid, which these practitioners think they can feel and manipulate by massaging your baby’s head.

Is that why your baby isn’t breastfeeding well? The tides and rhythms of his cerebrospinal fluid are off?

“When a baby is unable to nurse or nurses so poorly that he causes pain to his mother, he presents a true challenge. A mother who experiences pain or who perceives that her baby is not breastfeeding effectively is a mother who is at risk of prematurely weaning this baby.

After working through all of the usual avenues of information and resources that can help in this kind of situation, some Leaders have found a new therapy, called CranioSacral Therapy (CST), can be helpful. CST is a light-touch manual therapy used to encourage the body’s self-correcting mechanisms.”

La Leche League on Considering CranioSacral Therapy in Difficult Situations

Not surprisingly, there is no real evidence that craniosacral therapy helps breastfeeding or anything else.

It is very surprising that some parents are willing to pay $600 or more for a few craniosacral therapy sessions.

And it is disappointing that a lactation consultant would refer their patients for this kind of therapy, since there is no evidence that it will work.

What to Know About Chiropractic and Craniosacral Therapy for Breastfeeding Problems

Parents looking for breastfeeding support should view a referral to a chiropractor or to get craniosacral therapy as a red flag and consider getting a second opinion for their breastfeeding problems from someone who uses evidence based therapies that have been proven to work.

More on Chiropractic and Craniosacral Therapy for Breastfeeding Problems

Your Fussy Baby

Babies cry. Talk to your pediatrician if the crying seems to be excessive, especially if you have a hard time consoling your baby. (CC BY 2.0)

Like a formula fed baby, you should make sure your fussy breastfeeding baby isn’t hungry and doesn’t have a fever, colic, reflux, teething, an upper respiratory tract infection, and all of the other things that can make them fussy.

After eliminating those, and seeing your pediatrician to make sure that your baby has been gaining weight well, it might be time to eliminate things from your diet, as your baby might have allergic colitis (protein-induced colitis).

This is especially true if your breastfeeding baby is fussy, extra gassy, and has foul smelling, green, mucousy stools. You might also notice streaks of blood in your baby’s stool or that your baby has bad eczema already.

While babies can’t be allergic to your breast milk, they can certainly be allergic or intolerant to any number of things that you eat or drink and which enter your milk.

Foods To Eliminate First

Even before you start to think about foods to eliminate from your diet, please keep in mind that this isn’t a reason to stop breastfeeding and switch to formula. Since most formula is based on cow’s milk, your baby will likely continue to have problems on most routine formulas. Some babies even continue to have problems drinking an expensive hydrolyzed protein formula (Alimentum or Nutramigen) and have to move to an even more expensive elemental formula (Elecare, Neocate, or PurAmino).

Once you do begin to think about eliminating foods from your diet, you should probably start with milk and diary foods. Those are the most likely to cause issues with your baby, either an allergy or intolerance. And they are probably the easiest to avoid. If supplementing with some formula, be sure that it is milk and soy free. A hydrolyzed protein formula (Alimentum or Nutramigen) would usually be a good first choice.

The Breastfeeding Elimination Diet

If that doesn’t work, you can continue to eliminate other foods or foods groups from your diet, one at a time until you find what is triggering your babies symptoms, including:

soy

citrus fruits

eggs

nuts

peanuts

wheat

corn

strawberries

chocolate

fish and shellfish

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine recommends that after eliminating a food or food group, breastfeeding moms “wait a minimum of 2 weeks and up to 4 weeks,” although they should see improvement much sooner, within 2 to 3 days.

A Faster Breastfeeding Elimination Diet

Eliminating one food group at a time and waiting to see if it works can take time. A faster, but much more extreme approach is to eliminate most high-allergen foods all at once.

So what do you eat on this restrictive diet?

On this type of low-allergen diet, a breastfeeding mom might end up only eating foods like lamb, pears, squash, and rice. Other foods in this type of total elimination diet might also include chicken and turkey, potatoes, apples, and bananas.

Once your baby’s symptoms resolve, you can then slowly start introducing foods back into your diet, one food or food group at a time each week. Of course, stop a food if your child’s symptoms come back after it is reintroduced into your diet.

After avoiding a problem food for about six months and once your infant is 9 to 12 months old, you can likely reintroduce it into your diet and watch for symptoms

Another option, before trying the total elimination diet, might be to avoid milk, soy, fish, shellfish, and wheat. Then go total if that doesn’t work.

More About Breastfeeding Elimination Diets

Remember that once your baby is better and you are back on a fairly regular diet, simply avoiding the one or two foods that your baby can’t tolerate, it is still possible that your baby will be fussy sometimes. While it could mean that you ate something you weren’t supposed to, it also mean that you baby is teething, has a cold, is off her schedule, has developed reflux, or any number of other things. It’s not always going to be about food issues.

Also keep in mind that:

you should take vitamins (in addition to your daily prenatal vitamin, you will likely need extra calcium) to make up for anything you are missing in your elimination diet, especially calcium, vitamin D, iron, and folate, etc. and make sure you are getting enough protein and calories

missing the hidden ingredients in foods are likely a big reason why babies continue to have symptoms while you are following an elimination diet (for example, milk can sometimes be found as an ingredient in luncheon meats, many baked goods, and many other nondairy products) – check food labels and understand how to identify hidden ingredients in foods

lactose free cow’s milk, low fat cow’s milk, and other animal milks, including goat milk, are not good substitutes if you are trying to avoid cow’s milk in an elimination diet. Even soy milk and other soy products can often cause similar reactions. You also should try and make your own, homemade baby formula.

some vitamins and supplements can be a source of hidden milk, soy, and wheat

after avoiding a food for about six months and once your infant is 9 to 12 months old, you can likely reintroduce it into your diet and watch for symptoms

a registered dietician can help manage make sure you are getting all of the nutrients you need on this restrictive diet

in addition to your pediatrician, a pediatric gastroenterologist can also help manage your baby with allergic colitis, especially when you need to follow a total elimination diet

Fortunately, allergic colitis is not common, so few breastfeeding mothers should have to try, or stick with, any of these types of restrictive diets.

And since some studies are showing that babies who just have some rectal bleeding don’t even have allergic colitis and that their symptoms go away without any interventions, make sure your baby’s symptoms actually warrant these types of treatments.

What To Know About Breastfeeding Elimination Diets

A breastfeeding elimination diet can be helpful if your baby is overly fussy and might have a milk protein allergy or intolerance to other foods that you are eating.

One thing that they shouldn’t question is that breastfeeding provides a number of “short- and long-term medical and neurodevelopmental advantages” for their baby.

That’s why the American Academy of Pediatrics, in their 2012 policy statement on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk recommended:

“Exclusive breastfeeding for about six months…”

And for breastfeeding “to continue for at least the first year and beyond for as long as mutually desired by mother and child…”

Since the AAP has concluded that “breastfeeding and the use of human milk confer unique nutritional and nonnutritional benefits to the infant and the mother and, in turn, optimize infant, child, and adult health as well as child growth and development,” be sure you get all the help you need to effectively breastfeed your child.

And remember, if breastfeeding was easy, we wouldn’t need lactation consultants. So don’t be afraid to ask for help.